


A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed

by Zwaluw



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, World War I, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 07:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5408174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zwaluw/pseuds/Zwaluw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles and short stories about Wizards helping Muggles and Muggles helping Wizards.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alexandra

Her parents had protested her going quite vehemently, like any proper parents would if their child went off to war. They had insisted she should not make some Muggle war her own and Alexandra had insisted that this was the greatest slaughter in centuries and she would do what she could. And her parents had never really gotten used to her compassion, or her forcefulness. They still recalled her as the quiet little thing that was absolutely fascinated by anything that moved and later with the most fantastical illnesses and maladies that could befall a wizard. They did not recognize the young woman that set off in her light blue uniform, with her wand hidden in her stockings.

War was a hard thing, war made you hard and cold and gave your hands the strength to bandage the wounded without hearing their cries. It was not what she had imagined, she had known there would be blood and there would be people dying on her stretchers and nothing she could do about it. But she hadn’t known about the vacant looks the soldiers would give her. Or the ones that were filled with memories, because she had the hair of their sweetheart, back at home. She hadn’t thought of the screaming, or of the gas. But she soldiered on regardless, refusing to let it stray from her task. She was here to help, she would help. She would not stand by and let them tear each other to shreds. So she bandaged the wounds and held hands where needed. Consoled young men about their lost and broken sight.

And in the end she broke, because you could not be strong forever. Because there was a man lying in one of the beds, fingering a non-existent wand and murmuring curses still. Someone like her, a wizard who had wanted to help and now could do nothing any longer. She could not return his sight, for all her skills, magical or otherwise. She could only bandage his wounds and hope. And then the blasted things did not want to heal and dared to become infected, because that was what wounds did when you wanted them to heal so desperately. So she had taken her wand and wove a spell, as silently as she could, in the dead of night.

From then on you called on Alexandra when you had a difficult case, when survival or recovery was surely impossible and she would do her magic and make them better again. She did not use her wand again because she found herself incapable of working the slightest spell, but her magic was an obedient thing that bent to her will. So her hands were suffused with healing and her touch would draw the fever away. They did not all make it, they could not all make it. But she was helping.


	2. Bartek

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning for mention of the Holocaust and events that happened during WW2.

Should have kept to himself. Should have kept away, when the town was suddenly empty. Suddenly filled with people who spoke German. Suddenly filled with people who wore uniforms and smiled too brightly. Laughed too loud, spoke too fast. They hadn’t noticed his home. They never would. He was the only one here and it was good. But it wasn’t any more. Wasn’t any longer.

Should have kept to himself, or they wouldn’t have starved as he Apparated people out. The old, the sickly, the young, away. Away to places where this horror did not exist. Away to other wizards, who did not turn their noses up, others who helped. Who lived more in fear of the name Hitler than Grindelwald. Should have gone to stay with his aunt in Norway. Shouldn’t have helped, because what did it bring them?

Starvation. Starvation and hurt. They would not accept his help then, not accept the food and water from the strange man in his strange dress. Thought it was poisoned perhaps. Thought if they took it, some worse fate would be meted out.

Decimation, it had been called, so long ago. The tenth person of your regiment, executed for every traitor that turned. But here, whole families were punished, for something he had done. He had wanted to take the girl away, with her bright blue and frightened eyes, but found that he could not. Could not blink away the images, the mottled skin, pale and emaciated. Dry murmurs for mercy. For their god to save them. The god that did not listen. That god, that had caused them to be here. Hadn’t he?

He helped and it had been futile.


End file.
